Malevolent Mist on Spice Island

[orderispeace]

Who: Triton’s Mistress
Where: Spice Island
When: Oct. 10 - ??
What: As members of the crew touched by the mist grow more malicious they begin to cause turmoil on the ship turning a normal spice run chaotic.
Warnings: Possible fighting and language
Style: Whatever you want
Status: Closed to crew

The prow of the Mistress cut effortlessly through the salty water as the ship came to rest along side the dock. The uninhabited island was well known for its vast array of plant life, the bulk of which could be sold on the open market as spices or used to brighten up a weary sailor’s galley-cooked meals. Several large washtub sat on the dock just waiting for some one ambitious enough to fill them full of the island’s delicacies.

The trip to the island had been relatively calm with no major storms or hardships to slow their travel but now that they had docked odd things seemed to be happening all too frequently. Maybe the black mist the morning before had something to do with it?

[OOC: As usual feel free to start your own headers/threads! ]

Comments

[orderispeace]

From high up in the rigging of the Triton's Mistress Connor could be seen below loading the baskets of collected spices and securing them in the hold. At another time Haytham might have been mildy impressed that Connor had take the initiative to start this task all on his own but now... now it was just an opportunity to inflict harm on an unsuspecting family member.

Haytham took two steps forward and dropped from the beam he had been standing on, his hidden blade ready to inflict injury if it proved necessary. All in all it was not to be too much unlike their first canon meeting, father dropping down on son intending to kill him if need be, though the height was greater this time and there would be no father's curiosity to save him.

[givemelee]

You are never satisfied with anything father

Unaware of the other's stealthy approach, Ratonhnhaké:ton was essentially a sitting duck. As he busied himself with his work he never would have thought to look up. He raised up, with another crate in hand and moved toward the gangplank. A motion that was the only thing that was working in his favor. Haytham still managed to strike him, but not as directly as he had hoped.

The crate of spices went flying, spilling it's contents. Ratonhnhaké:ton himself got rewarded with a face full of wooden plank.

Scrambling to right himself, he whipped out his tomahawk and twisted around to see his assailant. "Father?! What is the meaning of this... here and now?" It's on brother...

[orderispeace]

The assault did not end as intended. Sheer fortune saw Connor move just that small measure of space away, not enough to avoid the blow entirely but the blade missed and the bad landing sent his father tumbling across the deck until his momentum slowed enough to stand again.

"Come along Connor."

Haytham sneered and paced forward, hidden blade flashing in and out of its hiding place as he ensured the weapon would still function properly.

"You had to know it would come to this eventually. You who having been so hostile to me and mine from the very moment you arrived, saw fit at every opportunity to destroy what I was attempting to build, and scorned any attempt I've made at reconciliation."

The snarl turned more menacing, fueled on not only by the power of the curse by also by his confused feelings over his son. His voice raised as the words that were not truthful or meant flew from his lips.

"What I want Connor, is to watch you suffer!"

A bit of broken crate given a kick powerful enough to send it soaring up into the air at the assassin, something of a distraction as Haytham himself followed soon after, slashing at the space in which Connor stood.

[givemelee]

Ratonhnhaké:ton took on a defensive stance as Haytham drew nearer.

"...." He wanted to argue with the latter part of his statement but he didn't. The threat of combat was a bit more pressing then trying to smooth over any hurt feelings. Flipping the tomahawk over in his hand,"You say that as if it would have been any different if I had been recruiting assassins.." They were on opposite sides of this, and they always had been. ".. but I thought.. that even you would understand how fruitless it is to raise a hand against me. How even if you managed to overpower me, that I would just keep coming back." Death was not the end here. Nor had it been in the world Ratonhnhaké:ton had been living. He'd been struck down by Washington's men, and lived to return with a vengeance. The spirits were on his side- he felt virtually invincible.

The anger was building between them. He'd already let Haytham get away with far too much and here he had the gaul to get upset about it. The words he spat next, gave him the option to utilize the full range of his powers. If that is how he felt, if that was what Haytham wanted then there was nothing more that could be said. There was no hope that the old man would ever change.. his poisonous ideas would continue to blight this world and their own. Cutting him down wouldn't stop him for long- but he wasn't being given much of an alternative.

He looked briefly to the crate, before bringing his arm up to block the weapon with his gauntlet.

"I had hoped, that things would be different this time- but you are impossible. I know now that it was foolish to bother giving you any sort of chance.." Not enjoying being backed into a corner, he transformed, and flew up to the nearest available perch. Returning to his normal form he stood tall on the ships railing. "This is going to be much easier than the last time..." Time for you to get better acquainted with my god like powers Haytham.

[orderispeace]

Haytham stumbled forward as his opponent vanished in front of him only to appear higher up in the rigging, moving with speeds unnatural in any human. He had noticed that skill before. Connor was... using some sort of, he hesitated to even think the word, magic that was unknown to him. No one, no matter how well trained could go from ground to air with such ease.

Not that it mattered. Even Connor's threat of the eternal unending duel between them did nothing to quash the feelings that he needed to harm the crew. He wanted to. The power of the dark mist was unavoidably powerful.

"Yes, gave me a chance..." He frowned and paced back away from the rigging making it more difficult for Connor to drop down on him as he had earlier done to his son. "Never once have we spoken without your taking a contrary view and belittling my own position. You are content to remind me of all my failures while never looking at your own... Oh yes, you gave me a proper chance."

The Templar reached for the pistol in his holster and having firmly grasped the weapon pulled it free from its home and fired several rounds right where Connor had perched.

[givemelee]

Ratonhnhaké:ton would have argued that it wasn't magic at all, but the spirits of his people. They were something greater than magic- not that the settlers ever bothered to learn about them.

Haytham was being completely beyond reason. Something- whatever it was had completely snapped in his mind. As far as Ratonhnhaké:ton could tell, as far as he'd been exposed to it was just his irrepressible anger coming to the forefront. This desire to kill him, did not seem as if it had needed a supernatural catalyst, not from what he already knew from his past, and not from the words that were being exchanged.

".............." Here is comes, more arguing. "The same could be said for you father..." When did you ever listen. Really listen to my ideals on freedom, and what being an assassin truly means. "When I first arrived here- I could have struck you down immediately." See, that's how charitable I was being. ".. but I did not. Knowing that you should have already been dead- by my hands." Okay, maybe now wasn't the best time to confess that. He paused a moment, and a look of confusion flashed over his features. According to his mother, he'd never had the chance to meet his father, so how had he been the one to kill him exactly?

"You have no idea what you had already put me through..." Not that you could, being from a different time frame.

Taking to the air again, the screeching of an eagle sounded, before he changed back into a man and tackled Haytham. You thought you were safe backing away, but I didn't need to jump on you when I could fly at you. It afforded him a longer range.

[orderispeace]

Ziio spoke of her Gods a little but to him it had been all myth and misunderstanding, interesting to hear how they saw the world, but ultimately incorrect. Not that those stolen moments had any real barring now as Haytham found himself swept backwards off his feet.

He landed hard against the planking of the dock with Connor's full weight on top of him. But it was a momentary pen only, as he planted a foot firmly on Connor's chest and gave the assassin a push away that might once again have reminded his son of their first meeting in the little Church in the winter woods for he had done the exact same move against his father on that occasion.

The Grand Master stalked away, circling, searching for any opening that might see his blade cut into flesh.

"What I have put you through! I have done nothing!"

Nothing of any real report or malice... that he knew of, up until this moment of course. Right now dancing in the blood of his wayward son would be as magical as the powers Connor could conjure up.

"You blame me for events I have never even dreamed of and then wonder why we can not come to know each other?"

Quickly a hand reached for a pocket.

"Now you claim to have murdered me before? There's a fine way to build a foundation!"

The air filled with thick smoke as the babble he had grabbed for, a smoke grenade, released it's payload in a giant burst of cloud. Then he slipped in closer, sharpened steel sword lashing out for the blue outline of his son's figure in the thick mist.

[givemelee]

Finding his mark, he was promptly dealt with, a growl formed at his lips. How could he have fallen into the same position again? Mirroring his father's actions he began circling as well.

"Oh go ahead! Refute my claims, I know the truth!"

Right now he didn't care that this Haytham was from a different time and hadn't committed those grievances yet. He was just venting, and growing angrier as time progressed. Ew btw. You psycho XD

".. Because I know what you're capable of even if you do not know it for yourself."

As Haytham's hand dove inside his pocket, Ratonhnhaké:ton had a feeling he knew what that meant. He popped into invisibility mode so it would be slightly more difficult for Haytham to aim, then he dove out of the way. When Haytham employed the use of his vision however he was able to draw in unnervingly close. Reappearing, he caught the blade on the hilt of his tomahawk, the sword clashed against the head of the shorter weapon.

Are you ready to greet the wolves for yourself? Remember the way Elissa was killed before? A pack of three transparent beasts leaped out of no where to start mauling Ratonhnhaké:ton's assailant.

[orderispeace]

Oh a snappy retort was just on the tip of his tongue. A piece of biting commentary designed to injure and harm sharper than a knife ever would...-- that is until the pack of invisible wolves, Connor's guard dogs, snatched him from behind and drug him beck to the ground. These were enemies he could not see but he did remember preciously what had happened to Elissa and in so doing he raised a protective forearm to his throat just as the lead wolf in the pack made to clamp down on his jugular.

The bracer he wore prevented the teeth from borrowing into his flesh but he was shaken, violently, just like they might kill a deer caught out in the wild. The fading effects of the smoke bomb did nothing to slow their attack.

"And what of you and this power..." Haytham snarled as he struggled against the hidden enemy. "You claim to know all the evil I am capable of, but what of yourself?"

The lip of the dock grew closer as the fight continued, the Grand Master dragging himself and the pairing of animals towards the edge.

"Do you think yourself beyond the failings of normal men simply due to this great ability?!"

[givemelee]

Ratonhnhnaké:ton was not as successful as his wolves at sussing out where Haytham was in all that smoke, so for the time being he let them do his work while the air cleared.

"Just what are you implying?" He questioned, as if the thought never crossed his mind that these trips to the spirit world might have somehow influenced him despite having heard his mother's own warnings at the time he was undertaking them. Power of any kind could go to one's head.. Ratonhnhaké:ton was just unwilling to see himself as someone who could fall prey to it.

Well- yeah.

"I have not lost sight of who it is I am fighting for.." That's all the explanation you need.

[orderispeace]

"I do not imply anything."

The voice shrouded in smoke called back even as the wolves snarled and howled nearly drowning him out.

"I am saying that power is unnatural! People from our world, Connor, are not capable of flying through the air or invisibly attacking an opponent. How then do you even hold this power?"

Haytham grunted against the strain of fighting off the three snarling wolves but the edge was nearly there, he could almost touch it!

"Or does it hold you?"

Because he is the one to talk about powers controlling you... shush he doesn't realize he is being controlled right now.
Just as the smoke began to clear there was a loud splash in which both Haytham and the wolves grew silent.

[givemelee]

".................................."

This was not exactly the kind of conversation you wanted to have in a battle to the death with your father. Was this really so important to him now? Also- he had hoped that if this had to happen at all then it would have been quick.

"It does not control me!"

And with that indignant growl all his own, Ratonhnhaké:ton had been fully prepared to introduce Haytham to one more of his powers- but he unceremoniously disappeared off the dock. Ratonhnhaké:ton's muscles tensed, as he drew closer to the edge.. would Haytham try something foolish even though he had to know he couldn't win.

[orderispeace]

Of course he would try something foolish! He was after all being manipulated by forces beyond his control.

The water was still and calm as Connor looked over the side at it, with no sign of the wolves or his father beyond the hat which bobbed up and down in the water like a cork. If it seemed unlikely Haytham would still be beneath it, it was. Quietly he slipped up on Connor from behind, having swam under water beneath the dock and come up on the other side.

[givemelee]

He frowned at the sight before him, listening for any sort of sound that might alert him of the outcome but the cove provided ample amounts of hiding places.

There wasn't even a ripple breaking the surface....

Somehow, he just knew that it wasn't over. Turning to glance behind, he caught sight of Haytham closing in on him. Reacting instead of thinking first, he made a leap, and when he landed the boards beneath them shook uncontrollably, some of them splitting and giving way. You might even have been able to hear the faint roaring of a large bear as it occurred..

It was only after he launched his final assault that he noticed the conspicuous pair of horns on Haytham's head..

[orderispeace]

The ground dropped out from beneath him but ultimately that mattered very little. While Connor would be plummeting down into the sea by the collapsing deck boards, who despite strong nails could not withstand the mighty power of the bear, Haytham was tossed high into the air. He tumbled like a ragdoll, thrown aside like he was nothing at all. The ground came up fast too, not that it mattered either. Once Haytham hit the hard packed dirt above the waterline he laid there quiet and still. The battered ribs and broken arm being of no consequence to a man who had been knocked soundly unconscious.

His hat still floated there aimlessly in the water now giving his head and the horns that had grown there over night no place to hide any longer.

[elissacousland]

Elissa erupted from below deck on the Triton's Mistress just in time to see Conner crash through the old deck and Haytham fly into the air. Perhaps it was surprising, but it was Conner's name that left her lips as she raced down the gangplank. Disheveled and sporting a black eye, various bruises, and rope burns, the Warden was in her sailing garb with her weapons strapped to her back.

"Ratonhnhaké:ton!" she cried in concern. "Did he hurt you? Haytham is under some sort of spell!"